Midwinter calling, day 28
Cool project
Ciara insist that we use the hammock and enjoy ourselves a bit during the voyage to Borgarsandr, and it has become a nice and sexy tradition we both appreciate. Afterwards, Ciara stay lying on top of me as we slowly rock as the boat sail. I say I want to surprise Alith with a 'jewel' plug of her own, simply because I care about Alith and I don't want her to use a wooden thing and get sick or get splinters, but Alith's will be in silver and with a blue crystal. Ciara will still have the only one in redish gold and will remain so. Ciara thinks it's a great idea, and doesn't mind her friend who introduced it to her getting one, but she is mostly happy that hers stays special, and that I care what Ciara thinks enough to talk to her about it, so she knows she is special.
----------------------------------------
The Millennium Eagle have left Sulaco behind, and its crew is sailing her to Borgarsandr without Merchant Ithuin who appreciates getting a ride in the Eagle, and it's a little hands-on training too since he'll be collecting sextant data on his upcoming trip. The Eagles crew have sailed her many times before, and Astas second in command can navigate without her, so Merchant Ithuin, Asta and I have a longer discussion about writing down and making navigation books, describing hazards and where they are, and creating more detailed charts with highlighted shallows, safe deep passages, bottom type, currents, common wind directions, safe anchorages etc. It's a quite long discussion, and it's a problem that things like this are actually what separates a skilled, experienced navigator from an inexperienced one. Area familiarity and general knowledge. I know how important navigation books were historically that told about routes and the like. It was literally military state secrets, and some information I will try to keep secret just to get an advantage. But I want that info and as good as possible and not just in the immediate area, and will probably send someone to map the immediate surroundings and measure depth sooner or later. It is very likely that the merchant ships will partially function as exploration ships in the future, and while they sail and make their routes, they collect facts and depth data etc. They may also partly function as training ships where one or two students come along and gain experience of long voyages, other cultures, languages and trade.
----------------------------------------
It is quite dark outside when we anchor in Borgarsandr, and we borrow a horse from the Merchant Empire to send Elvira ahead to prepare the overnight stay at B-mansion and sent the carriage back. Olafr thanks us for some of the best days of his life, and Jane gives him two sketches. One from the photo after the first hunt, and other is from the elk hunt, and Olafr is really touched by them and thanks her. He carefully rolls up the sketches, and carries them very tenderly as he walks away with his apprentice Bruinn. It's probably just the cold and the wind that brought tears to Olafr's eyes.
Since we are just waiting, I talk with Ovdhon so that in the future we can store at least the winter carriage together with a couple of horses in the barns of the Merchant Empire. Nowadays we always dock here and we can then take the carriage directly up to the B-mansion instead of having to waste time to wait, but it gives them some time to start the fires and prepare for our arrival. It would be nice with a future radio in the B-mansion just for the convenience of being able to let them know when we plan to arrive, but it would have helped a lot with a telegraph line between the Merchant Empire and the B-mansion. I've basically done what I need to for that, the problem here is that I have to get permission from all the landowners in between. And it is a long distance, which needs a long copper wire.
The Merchant Empire actually has four relatively large round whetstones with a square hole in the middle for foot operated knife sharpeners, and I buy three. I need one in my workshop, and the others will be in the mansion's small forge in the barn, and in the village forge. I will probably make the one in my workshop both line shaft driven and give it a foot pump. When I ask about exotic woods, that is something Ovdhon has a bit of, and that includes what must be something like ebony. It's dark and feels like it and smell strange. So I buy it and a few other woods, and ask him to increase his stock but not to rush it.
Ovdhon has found two women who wish to carry out the underwear trade, so if it is possible we ask him to try to get them to come and visit us at the B-mansion tomorrow or early the day after tomorrow. One will take the Southwest route and others will take the Southern because those are the languages they know, and there will probably be a stronger market for these luxuries in the Queen's Kingdom and among the other rich covered in the Gweibeau organization.
It is some time since Kari told us about the small Hansa-like organization called Gweibeau, and it came up more during the Royal family's visit in connection with the discussions about Reiekrône and the route there. Especially Queen Haera told us more about it as she have spent more time away from the Kingdom and visited the other countries in the south several times, especially the Damman Queendom. The Gweibeau organization is primarily between Queen Damman and several important cities, nobles, merchants and a few guilds where they strengthen each other and have various advantages, such as cheaper fees, priority for goods, port location and the like. Ovdhon have already told me that Radgeirrson hoped to be able to buy his Merchant Empire entrance in Gweibeau.
Queen Haera explained that Queen Damman's primary power base and economy consisted of control of the two major cities of Reiekrône and Dammâu, and trade to and from and between them. I think of them as Hamburg and Lübeck since they pretty much seem to be at those locations, and considering how important and powerful each city has been in the history of Midgård, I am not surprised that the same applies here. It's simple geography. Two important rivers and huge trade routes, one towards the North Sea and the other towards the Baltic Sea, and Queen Damman controls both and earns wealth from both. There is a paved road between the towns which is well guarded and is called the 'Queen's Road'. There was discussion as to whether we should take the faster and shorter route straight south to Dammâu and then use the country road, or round Daes Kingdom and up the long river Reie to Reiekrône. We have carriages, but I want the ship with radio and storage available and my women wanted to make our presence more obvious, and our invitations also gives us special privileges in Reiekrône during the visits. So we chose to sail directly to Reiekrône, and so will King Asbjörn's family.
Just such a thing as the incredibly important and huge trade in salt from Brinberg south of Damman takes place via the rivers and the two towns. Most of the salt used here in the north comes from Brinberg and not from southern 'Poland' as I thought, and the Queen earns a little silver on each barrel because the trade goes mainly through Dammâu or Reiekrône. This applies to most of what is traded between north and south since the only bridge across the wide river Reie is in Reiekrône, and there is also those merchants with goods going from east and west who want to avoid time and the dangerous sea route around the Daes Kingdom. There is a lot of goods moving on the 'Queen's Road', and there seem to be just insanely many shiploads of food, fish, butter, copper, iron, furs and beer. And Queen Damman earns silver on everything; port charges; road fees; transport. Add that there are unloading laws in both towns. Those laws means that ships, wagons and traders that want to sell or buy must unload and display all their goods for three days and give merchants the opportunity to buy them. However, it is possible to avoid this time and trouble - for a small fee.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
However, the unloading law makes it dangerous for ships travelling on voyages with many stops, because it can happen that the merchant are forced to sell goods there that he doesn't want. There are fixed recommended prices, and if any buyer is willing to pay 50% above this fixed price, the goods must be sold. The problem is that the goods might be sold for far more somewhere else, further away, and if it is food or the like, it's bad to spend time in port, especially in the summer. In principle, a lot of trade is just from or till the towns and then back. However, luxury items and special items such as North Arrows are not included in the list, but the unloading law applies to them too. So the merchants there will know what goods are being sold and moved. However, all the wealth and all the merchant ships make it a huge thorn in the side of Daes King Magnbjorn and a couple of powerful Daes Jarls. They would of course have wanted more trade to pass through their Kingdom and regions so they could earn silver. Historically, there have been raids against Dammâu in particular, so the towns are well protected and fortified.
We continue to talk about trade, and the ship travelling the northern route that doesn't travel during winter, will get a new winter job of acquiring ice blocks and have to make an estimated 5-6 trips, each roundtrip taking about two weeks, but it is on the least dangerous sea. When I explain the purpose in more detail, Ovdhon thinks it is very interesting, especially when I mention that I will build a large ice house here in Borgarsandr for ice sale to the public, and the ship can then transport ice in the winter months because we cannot rely on the amount of ice nearby. Storsjön will have insane amounts of ice, but transporting it down past the rapids to Laxlanda by road is incredibly impractical.
The Merchant Empires location is by the harbour, but isn't really suitable for a larger ice house as it has sunlight all day although there are some deciduous trees that can provide some shade, and it is possible to make an underground ice house in the future even if the drainage becomes a little more complicated and needs to be bucketed up. Or I put it on the edge of my property at the B-mansion, or somewhere else. It should be close to the river. Maybe at the basket maker? Although it is also possible to make an ice house that stands on stilts above ground.
Eh, I might as well try a half submerged ice house here. So Caecilia fetch the two builders who came along to upgrade the B-mansion and have experience with my projects on the island, including the ice house. I sketch and let Ovdhon be responsible for building an ice house of about 10x20 meters, which should give an internal surface of about 8x18m. This close to the harbour, the ground will probably be waterlogged and mostly sediment, but Ovdhon will hire some workers so they can dig down maybe 2 meters and build 3-4 meters high, and check that the ground is firm enough and how big the ice house can be so there isn't bedrock or something. Then build they will build a foundation with drainage down to a lower tank, just like the ice house on Ackerek has. There we use the height and slope of the land to have run-off lower down where there is a tap and overflow protection. Here, that won't be possible and will simply be a water pump for now, but there will be a huge amount of water if the icehouse is filled, because if everything melts, it will be like 600m³, which is literally a large and deep pool, so it will probably be a wind-powered pump. The water will be 'clean', so they can use it for drinking water for themselves and the animals this summer, and both the upper and lower tank must be lined with copper on the inside to keep it cleaner and prevent growth. He can contact the copper guild about it. Just like on the islands, the upper tank can be in a cold house on the north side where Ovdhon can store food.
They will build up the floor, walls and then a roof above. Anything dug up can then be piled on to the sides and on the roof as insulation, but they won't be able to make a masonry roof during winter, so a wooden roof is best for now, and prepare to replace it when the ice melts next fall, and until then get stone and mortar for a vaulted roof. The roof should be insulated incredibly well, and there will be an internal wood house as extra insulation from the ground and sides, and there will be a simple counterweight system to lift and lower ice blocks, and so ice blocks can be slid over to a cart for deliveries from a separate cold house to work as a air buffer. There will probably be some form of horse or man-powered conveyor belt in the future.
Ice block transportation from a ship and out to delivery will definitely require a suitable cargo wagon, and it is not wrong to have a better wagon for other transports the Merchant Empire does, so I will order one for it. Our own new wagon should be ready, so we'll collect it tomorrow so Ovdhon can see it. To be honest, more than one wagon will probably be needed, because it is quite easy to calculate the amount of trips with, say, 0.4 tons of ice per load, which is 1500 wagon loads. Just unloading from a ship means that the ice house should be within crane distance from the ship, but I simply don't have land for that. If ice becomes the popular commodity I expect it to become, then future ice houses might be further inland where I can by harbour land, and special insulated ice wagons will be manufactured, with a logo on the side. It feels like a good idea to keep it as its own trade organization specializing in ice.
Just shipping 600 tons of ice here by ship will be a lot of work, and maybe it's better to tow a smaller iceberg and saw it up right here? There are places in Norway where glaciers go out towards the coast, but it is hardly optimal. Maybe I should team up with Myrun? Myrun have many merchant ships and should have better access to ice. There's a damn big lake on the other side of Skiringsalr, just a few kilometers from the harbour. We looked out over it when we were there, and a shorter return trip means that more ice can be transported during the same time, and safer. But the question is, will there be enough thick ice there? And do I want to tie myself up in an ice company with Myrun? Or should I try to buy from Hildifjoer? There is a more than adequate lake there too, and should be a longer and colder winter with high mountains blocking sunlight on the south side. However, it is more than 3 times longer distance, half of which is on the North Sea in winter. The time and distance makes it very impractical. Although there should still be thick ice when the lake in Skiringsalr have thawed.
We are still discussing the details of sawing, tools and special wagons when the carriage arrives, and I have made a drawing of an icebox and a top loaded larger icebox that he can order to start selling to his customers, and try for himself. However, we will limit the number of customers this year in order to calculate consumption etc, and it depends on how much actual ice that is transported here before spring. Ovdhon will manufacture three stylish and decorated ice boxes, and five cheaper but still functional ones, plus three big top loaded for large households. A pretty one and a large one will go to the B-mansion, another set will stay as a demonstration unit here and for their own use, and the third set I will give to the Royal Castle. Since the boxes will be finished before the ice house, Ovdhon can try freezing ice when it's cold, just like we do.